As much as I think that dollar vans are useful and necessary along Flatbush Avenue… I really really really wish the NYPD would do more speed and reckless driving enforcement there.

I don’t care about “illegal” pick-ups by vans. But I do care about dangerous driving.
This death is the inevitable result of the NYPD’s failure to do even the most basic traffic enforcement.

Anonymous

Cross-posted from nydailynews.com:

I don’t think the problem is that the employer asks the delivery worker to rush the order. I think the problem is that most of the income the delivery worker receives comes in the form of tips. This means that they have a very strong incentive to deliver as many orders per hour as possible. If these workers were paid a decent hourly wage instead and didn’t depend as much on tips, it would be more rational to expect them to follow the law.

What will most likely happen if you ask the restaurant to pay the fine is that they will immediately fire the worker, who will go on to another restaurant until they get another fine.

Joe R.

I agree 100% with the idea of making restaurants pay the fines for their delivery workers but I suspect the end game will be the end of deliveries. The cost will just be too great for restaurants to bear. Moreover, deliveries will take too long if delivery cyclists follow the law due to rigorous enforcement. It could take over 10 minutes to cover a mile on a bike if you stop and wait for every traffic light. Maybe when the people in these neighborhoods suddenly face the loss of fast delivery they’ll change their tune on bicycles. They can’t have it both ways. Either you have lots of technical law breaking and fast deliveries, or you don’t have deliveries at all. If I owned a restaurant, I would cease offering deliveries as soon as major enforcement of cycling laws on delivery people kicked in. One red light ticket could easily wipe out an entire day’s profit.

Driver

I think a contraction of delivery areas would be more likely, simply limiting selection for delivery recipients.

Agree with Joe R. and Driver. No matter how delivery cyclists are paid by their employers New Yorkers will continue to tip them just as they tip cabbies, waiters, and and almost anyone else who performs a service.

I live in the West Village and we’re constantly bombarded with menus from restaurants on the East Side – some as far away as Gramercy and Murray Hill. If the food arrives cold maybe more people will order locally or stop ordering take-out entirely. Not only would cracking down on restaurants who use delivery guys make the streets and sidewalks safer, it might even save a few trees in the process.

Daphna

Restaurants should all band together and should all charge a surcharge on each delivery. This surcharge should be in the name of the city council member who sponsored the legislation that created the idea of “commercial” cyclists and created a different set of laws they must follow that anyone using the same type of bicycle for a non-delivery purpose does not have to follow. The surcharge should also come with a list of all the city council members who voted for this anti-bicycle legislation. If everyone who ever gets food at home must pay $3 (or some amount) extra per delivery as a “commercial cyclist legislation delivery surcharge” this would help with awareness.

Right now the financial penalty of police harassment and bad city council legislation is being borne by the delivery cyclists. Transportation Alternatives wants the restaurants to bear the costs. I instead want the restaurants to pass it on to the customers receiving deliveries. Then there might finally be uproar against absurd police enforcement and against the city council’s anti-bike legislation (that went under the radar because it created a new class the “commercial” cyclist and only targeted them.)

Daphna

To Stacy Walsh Rosenstock:
You are mistaken. What makes our streets safer is more bicyclists on the streets. Having fewer makes them more dangerous. The danger of streets comes from motorists and the more vulnerable users on the streets there are, such as more bike riders and walkers, the more drivers must take care. Fewer bicycle riders means a little less care taken by motorists and more dangerous streets.

Bicycle riders are perceived danger but this is a misperception. In reality they are making the streets safer for all just by being out there and being vulnerable.